


savor the taste (savor the pain)

by solarkth



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Vampire, And hungry, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood Drinking, Blood and Injury, Crying, Established Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Established Relationship, Explicit Language, Fluff and Angst, Human/Vampire Relationship, Humor, Hurt Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Hurt Mark Lee (NCT), Light Angst, M/M, Mark lee is dumb, Sad Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Self-Harm, Vampire Lee Taeyong, Vampire Mark Lee, Vampires, and a mess, he didnt sign up for this, he's fine tho, hyuck just wanted to watch one piece, hyuck panics, hyuck's an idiot, i guess??, mark sort of passes out, no beta we die like men, taeyong's mad, ten is annoyed, vampire ten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25102684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarkth/pseuds/solarkth
Summary: It didn’t hurt, not after the initial bite. The venom flowing through his veins did a good job at taking away the pain. The feeling was still there, though. He could feel Mark pull the blood from his body, he could feel his life source leaving his body. It was a weird feeling, and Donghyuck wasn’t entirely sure if he liked it.Still, he was content with letting Mark take as much as he needed. Mark was still drinking greedily, grip getting tighter by the minute. Donghyuck gulped, “Uh, Mark? Can you loosen up a bit?”
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Lee Taeyong/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 9
Kudos: 304





	savor the taste (savor the pain)

**Author's Note:**

> this has totally been done a hundred times before but i don't care because we need more vampire markhyuck.  
> this is also my first post on here so if it looks like i'm struggling its because i am
> 
> trigger warning: blood, self harm
> 
> the title is from forever by chvrches 
> 
> i hope you enjoy!

In theory, Donghyuck knows that having a vampire boyfriend isn’t the safest thing in the world. It’s only been a couple of decades since the vampires revealed themselves to the rest of humanity, and you can only imagine the discrimination and prejudice they were met with. Humans don't like threats, and what's more threatening than a mythical creature than literally drinks blood turning out to be real? Humanity didn't take the news so well. 

That being said, human and vampire relationships aren’t common. It’s a taboo subject, and is almost as bad as incest in some people's eyes. Some people just can’t wrap their minds around the idea that you can be with someone despite them being a blood drinking, savage, immortal mythical creature that could turn you into dinner in the blink of an eye. 

Donghyuck, however, has never been someone to follow trends and mainstream opinions. 

He met Mark Lee in his freshman year of university. They shared a videography class as an extracurricular and technically hadn't spoken more than two words to each other. Donghyuck had secretly been crushing on Mark since the beginning of the semester and had subjected his roommate, Renjun, to long rants about how cute he thought the elder was. 

And because Renjun’s a good friend, he sat through about two weeks of the rants before announcing that Johnny was actually Mark’s TA and close friend, so it’d be great if Donghyuck could _shut up and go bother Johnny instead._

So that's what Donghyuck did. He started spending a lot of time around Johnny (and Taeyong, because he was Johnny’s boyfriend and they were always together), and tried convincing Johnny to give him Mark’s number. It took longer than Donghyuck expected, because apparently Mark Lee was a very private person and didn't like random strangers to have his number. Which was understandable, Donghyuck wouldn't like it either. If he were anyone else he would have backed off and respected Mark’s privacy, but he wasn't anyone else, and when Donghyuck wants something, he gets it. 

It took two crashed dates and Donghyuck accidentally walking in on Johnny and Taeyong in a compromising position for Johnny to cave. The elder had grumbled under his breath and slapped a crumpled piece of paper onto Donghyuck’s palm before forcing Donghyuck out of his apartment. 

Donghyuck shot Mark a text later that day and the rest was history. He had somehow managed to land himself a cute vampire boyfriend. 

Which, as you can imagine, came as a huge surprise. It’s not every day you find out your boyfriend of six months is a vampire. 

The reveal wasn't some big, dramatic event. It was quite the opposite, actually. Donghyuck had gone over to Mark’s apartment one day to binge all of the Harry Potter movies with him. When he arrived he knocked and there was no answer. After three minutes of standing on Mark’s doorstep like an idiot, sending text after text to the elder, Donghyuck got worried. Mark had told him to come over, but now he wasn't responding to his texts. Donghyuck remembers looking at the door and thinking _oh god, he’s dead._

So like any respectable, worried boyfriend would, Donghyuck broke into Mark’s apartment. 

He expected to find some gruesome murder scene. He expected to see Mark with his guts ripped out, laying dead in the bathtub with blood smeared on the walls. 

He did not expect to see Mark standing in his kitchen, still dressed in his baseball gear, with a blood bag hanging from his mouth. 

“Uh,” Mark lisped, looking vaguely like a deer in headlights, “I can explain?” 

So Mark came clean and spilled everything onto the table. Yes, he is a vampire. Yes, he is immortal. Yes, he does have superhuman strength. No, Donghyuck, he does not sparkle, thank you very much. 

He also came clean about the fact that Taeyong was also a vampire, which was a surprise within itself. Although looking at it now, Donghyuck can see it. Taeyong’s too pretty to not be some supernatural creature made by the Gods. 

The serious conversation ended with Donghyuck assuring Mark that he wasn't weirded out and was very much okay with his boyfriend being a blood sucking beast. And even if Mark didn't appreciate the term beast, he ignored it in favor of kissing Donghyuck hard. 

Two years later Donghyuck had long gotten used to the idea of Mark being a vampire. He knows a lot more about vampires now, has surrounded himself with their lifestyle and culture, and has found out that more of the people in his life are vampires. 

“Welcome home,” Donghyuck greets sweetly from his spot on the bed, turning his attention away from the dog video on Instagram to trail his eyes over his boyfriend. 

Mark looks more tired than usual. His hair seems to always be disheveled, lips turned downward in a permanent frown that matches the dark bags under his eyes. He’s paler than he usually is. 

Mark sighs as he throws his school bag down and flops face first into his pillow, groaning out into it. Donghyuck frowns and tucks his phone away, shifting to run a comforting hand along Mark’s back, “Rough day?” 

“Yes.” 

Mark’s voice comes out muffled by the pillow and is low and husky like it usually gets when he’s dead tired. Donghyuck hums in sympathy, “I told you to rest sometimes. No one said you had to have two majors, be on student council, and play baseball. You literally have an eternity to do those things.” 

“I like being busy,” Mark says, turning his head enough to open one eye and look at his boyfriend. Donghyuck thinks they look more red than usual. 

“Are you acting like this because you're hungry?” 

“No,” Mark denies, “I’m not that hungry.” 

“Your eyes are red.” 

Mark sighs, running a tired hand through his hair, and pulls himself up from the bed. He trudges over to the vanity and sighs, prodding at the skin underneath his eyes. Donghyuck watches silently and slowly crawls to the edge of the bed, “Mark?”

Mark glances at him through the mirror, “I’m fine.”

“You're hungry.” 

“I’ll be okay. It's not that bad yet.” 

Donghyuck frowns, “When did you last feed?”

“A few days ago? Earlier this week, I think.”

“You think?”

“Yeah,” Mark says, moving away from the vanity, “I think.” 

Donghyuck frowns, an ugly feeling sitting at the bottom of his stomach. Something was wrong. Mark doesn't usually forget when he last fed. He’s particular when it comes to the activity, likes being organized and sure of himself. He can't make mistakes, even if he doesn't hunt humans and only goes after small game if he goes through all his blood bags before he gets more. Still, he has to be careful. 

When the vampires revealed themselves, so did the Hunters. The Hunters are an old organization, as old as the first vampire, and their main job is to ‘keep the vampires in check’. They used to hunt the vampires, hence the name, and brutally kill them or take them as experiments. Mark told him stories from that time long ago about how the Hunters would take freshly turned fledglings and slowly starve them to death, recording their behavior and tracking how long they can survive without food. The story still sticks with Donghyuck today and he doesn't know if he’d ever be able continue living if something like that happened to Mark or any of his other vampire friends. 

The Hunters have changed their ways now, for the most part anyway. They don't go after every vampire they see anymore, instead choosing to go for the vampires they deem feral. Feral vampires are a high threat and will do anything for blood, not caring if they’re taking the life of an innocent human. The Hunters have made it rather clear: don't go feral and you’ll be safe. 

But of course, with old organizations comes old traditions, and not everyone doesn't follow them. There’s still a few rogue Hunters out there that will kill simply because someone is a vampire, feral or not, and unfortunately there's no laws set in place to punish the Hunter if they succeed. 

Which is what makes this whole situation so odd. Mark is clumsy and awkward, it's just engraved into his personality and is one of the reasons why Donghyuck loves him, but he is not clumsy and awkward when it comes to feeding. 

“I’m calling Taeyong,” Donghyuck declares, already fishing his phone out from the mess of blankets and pillows. 

Mark rushes to stop him, “No it's fine! Don't bother him.”

Donghyuck fixes him with a look before sorting through his contacts, “I’m not having you go out when you don't even remember the last time you ate. What if you fuck up and drain a human? It’s not a risk I'm willing to take.”

“You know I won't.” 

“You can't know that. It’s not something you can predict.” 

“Please don’t call Taeyong. He’ll lecture me! I’m fine, really. It just slipped my mind because I’m so busy with school.” 

“Do you even have any bags left?” 

“I mean I may have ran out the other day,” Mark trails for a moment, gazing off at the wall with a pensive look, “But it's okay. I can just slip out later and find a squirrel or something. I won’t slip, Hyuck.” 

“Mark—”

Mark shakes his head, “Just trust me, okay?”

“Fine,” Donghyuck agrees, already having every intention to text Taeyong behind Mark’s back. 

“Thank you,” Mark sighs in relief. He starts heading back towards the door, “I’m gonna get some homework done. I have an essay for music production due in three days.” 

Donghyuck nods and climbs off the bed, “Okay. I’m helping myself to your kitchen.” 

Mark snorts, “Good luck finding anything.” 

───────────────── 

Donghyuck texts Taeyong a couple of hours later, after Mark’s left to go hunting, leaving Donghyuck in a quiet apartment. It makes it the perfect time to project One Piece onto the wall, change into one of Mark’s heavy sweatshirts, and burrow under Mark’s comforter. He’s halfway into the second episode of season four when he finally remembers to text Taeyong about Mark. 

> hyuck 🐶🌻  
>  hey btw marks out of blood  
>  and he’s pretty hungry  
>  he went hunting today  
>  should be okay for a couple of days
> 
> taeyong🐱  
>  Okay, thanks for letting me know, I’ll stop by in a bit to drop off some.  
>  Let Mark know he’s getting a talking to. He’s cutting into emergency bags. 

Donghyuck chuckles at the notion of Mark getting in trouble with Taeyong. Taeyong’s lectures are never fun and Donghyuck has been on the receiving end of them more than once. He sighs as he drops his phone onto the bed, pressing play on Mark’s laptop. He turns to make himself comfortable, glancing at the alarm clock on Mark’s desk that’s glowing red in the dark room. The numbers read 1:23 A.M., and Donghyuck can’t help but begin to feel worried. Mark’s been gone for the better part of an hour now. His hunts never take this long, not when the campus is conveniently surrounded by a thick forest. It’s not rare to spot deer or racoons at the edge of the forest line, and that in turn makes hunting rather easy. In fact, on the rare occasions that Mark does go hunting, it usually only takes him fifteen to twenty minutes to do so. He’s never gone for more than half an hour.

Donghyuck knows he has a tendency to worry too much, especially when it comes to his loved ones, but he just can't get rid of the feeling that _something is wrong._ The feeling creeps under his skin, bugging him like an inch he can’t scratch, making him uncomfortable. 

He’s just about to unlock his phone to text Mark when there’s a loud bang coming from the living area. It makes Donghyuck jump out of his skin, nearly sending him into cardiac arrest from how surprising it was. He frowns as there’s more clanging that is slowly getting louder and more frequent, slowly rising up off the bed. He has half the mind to grab Mark’s precious baseball bat to defend himself before slipping quietly into the hallway. He keeps his steps light, all of his years of dance finally being put to good use as he stops short at the end of the hallway. He waits with bated breath, readjusting his grip on the bat as he carefully peers around the corner of the wall and finds-

Mark. An extremely battered and bruised Mark. 

“What the hell happened?” Donghyuck questions incredulously, dropping the bat with a loud clang as he rushes forward to help his barely standing boyfriend. 

Mark looks like he’s half dead. He’s covered head to toe in his own dark blood, a dark rich maroon color that belongs purely to vampires, and it stains his clothing, oozing out of the large wounds on his arm and abdomen. There’s a pained expression on his face as he pants heavily and presses at a rather dark bruise on his neck. 

“Mark, tell me what happened. Are you okay?” Donghyuck asks, steadying him. He’s quick to lead him over to Mark’s bathroom, setting him down on the toilet seat before searching through the cabinet for the first aid kit. 

“Hunters—” Mark chokes out, jumping at the sound of Donghyuck practically slamming the kit onto the sink, “H-He got me out of nowhere.”

Donghyuck’s frown hardens at the words. He bites the inside of his cheek angrily, focusing on carefully peeling away Mark’s jacket and shirt. They’re sticky with blood and the texture feels horrible under his fingers. It leaves them painted maroon as he lets go of the garments, disposing them in the bathtub to take care of later. The stab wounds come to life under the fluorescent lights of the bathroom. Donghyuck figures Mark put up a pretty good fight now that he can see all the cuts and bruises that litter his forearms and torso.

“Are you sure he was a hunter?” Donghyuck asks, taking a wet washcloth and pressing it onto the gash on Mark’s upper arm. He has Mark hold it there, telling him to apply pressure, so he can deal with the wound on his abdomen first. 

“Well, he managed to stab me twice, so yeah, I’m sure,” Mark huffs out, hissing when Donghyuck pours a good amount of rubbing alcohol directly onto the wound, “That fucking hurts!”

“Well that’s what you get for being moody,” Donghyuck chastises, cleaning off the wound. It’s deeper than he expected and Donghyuck knows it’ll take longer for Mark’s body to heal it, even with the superhuman healing. The edges are already beginning to scab over a bit though, and it’s bleeding considerably less, so Donghyuck figures it’ll be okay. 

“I’m sorry,” Mark whimpers, “It just hurts.”

Donghyuck hums, “I know, but you’ll be okay.”

They sit in silence as Donghyuck finishes sanitizing his wounds. It’s after they began wiping off the blood that Donghyuck felt the previous worry get deeper. Mark had been awfully quiet for a while, which was fine, because Donghyuck is sure he’s extremely tired after all of this. What isn’t fine, however, is the way Mark’s eyes have slowly been slipping closed as he gets paler and paler.

Donghyuck is standing up in an instance, taking Mark’s face in his hands, gently shaking him awake. He’s panicking a bit as Mark looks up at him hazily with dopey frown on his face, “H-Hyuck, I don’t feel so good—”

“Mark, try to focus on me,” Donghyuck says, lifting one hand to snap in front of Mark’s eyes. He makes sure Mark’s paying attention before asking, “Did you feed?”

“H-Huh?”

“Did you feed?” Donghyuck repeats.

“D-Dunno.”

Donghyuck sighs and gently taps Mark’s cheek, “C’mon baby, I need you to try to remember. Did you feed or not?”

Mark blinks blearily, struggling to think in his haze, and eventually shakes his head, “Don’t think so.”

Donghyuck is debating about whether or not to call Taeyong when Mark goes limp in his grasp. He yelps, steadying Mark’s head when it lolls back, “Mark?! Hey, wake up!”

Mark comes back to him after a moment, mumbling incoherently. He gulps and gently rests Mark against the wall, making sure he won’t fall, before running from the bathroom to the bedroom. He slips a little bit from trying to run with socks on the hardwood, and he nearly runs into the doorframe, but he makes it to Mark’s bedroom in record time. He zeroes in on his phone and grabs it before rushes back to Mark while struggling to tell Siri to call Taeyong. The line dials and Donghyuck sets the phone on the counter, settling back in front of Mark. 

Taeyong answers on the third ring with a confused noise, “Hyuck?” 

“Taeyong! Thank god you answered! It’s Mark, he’s hurt.”

“Hurt? How hurt?”

Donghyuck glances down at Mark, “Pretty hurt. He went out to feed and got attacked by a Hunter. He’s getting a little delirious and I don't know what to do.”

“He got attacked?!” 

“Yeah, he was staked twice, once in the arm and again in the abdomen. He’s pretty rough and I’m kind of freaking out, so can you come over and help, please? I think he’s gonna pass out.”

Taeyong sighs, “Sorry Hyuck, but I’m almost an hour away.”

“An hour! Well, can’t you just superspeed over here? Seriously Yong, I don’t know what to do!”

There’s a moment of hush whispering and Donghyuck thinks he can hear Johnny in the background. He almost feels bad, they must’ve been on a date, but push came to shove and Donghyuck isn’t sure he can handle Mark’s injuries anymore. He’s not exactly up to date on vampire anatomy. 

“Even with the speed I’ll still be thirty minutes away,” Taeyong says, “But I’ll call my friend Ten. He’s trustworthy, and also a vampire, he’ll be able to help. Mark just needs some blood to drink, if he was staked twice he probably bled out pretty bad, and not only that but the healing takes extra blood as well. He’s most likely only so bad because he hasn’t fed. He’ll be okay Hyuck, just wait for Ten and don’t let him fall asleep.”

“Okay, thank you Taeyong.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can, be brave Hyuck. Mark needs you right now.”

Donghyuck hangs up with a worried sigh, dropping himself to the floor in front of Mark. He hopes this Ten person will come soon. 

“H-Hyuck,” Mark croaks, reaching out a trembling hand.

Donghyuck hushes him softly and links their fingers together, “Shh, save your energy.”

“H-Hungry,” Mark whispers tiredly. 

“I know sweetheart, but don’t worry, Taeyong’s friend is coming with some food soon,” Donghyuck assures, “Just hold out a little more, okay?”

“I don’t think I can,” Mark admits, “I’m so tired, I just wanna sleep.”

Donghyuck shakes his head, “Don’t sleep! No sleeping! Ten’s coming soon, just stay up for a little longer.”

Mark murmurs something Donghyuck can’t quite make out and closes his eyes momentarily. Donghyuck sighs as coaxes him awake again with the promise that he’ll get to feed soon. He feels helpless, sitting on the bathroom floor as his boyfriend is on the verge of passing out, stuck waiting for some vampire he doesn’t even know. Donghyuck sighs, checking his phone to see if Taeyong sent him an update text. He knows he hasn’t, there was never a notification sound that went off, but he can’t help but check it anyways. 

Donghyuck glances back over at Mark only to find the elder’s eyes closed. He frowns and gets onto his knees, reaching out to shake Mark, “Hey, get up. We can’t sleep.”

Donghyuck doesn’t get a response. Mark doesn’t even open his eyes a crack. It makes Donghyuck panic, shaking Mark harder, “Mark? Mark! C’mon babe, you gotta wake up!”

His attempt is fruitless. The only thing it accomplishes is sending Donghyuck into more of a flurry, panic rising as he starts roughly shaking Mark, caution for the wounds that might reopen thrown out the window, “Seriously Mark Lee! Wake the fuck up! Taeyong said you're not supposed to sleep. You better not be fucking dead or I swear to god I’ll bring you back and kill you myself.”

Donghyuck phone pings, lighting up on the floor next to him. He grabs it and reads the update saying Ten should be here in ten minutes. Donghyuck feels like screaming, he doesn’t have that long, not when Mark’s barely conscious as is. He groans and tries to calm down and think rationally. 

Donghyuck gets an idea. 

If it’s blood Mark needs, then it’s blood he’s going to get. 

Donghyuck grabs the first aid kit, rummaging through it until he finds the pair of surgical scissors Jeno stole for them. He quickly grabs them and opens them so the two blades are stretched out as far as they’ll go.

His hands shake at the idea of what he’s about to do, but one look at Mark is enough to give him enough courage to hold out his arm. He takes a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, and digs the scissors into the skin just above his wrist. He bites his lip and then drags the scissors harshly across his arm, crying out at the pain as the cut opens and blood comes pouring out. It drips onto the floor, staining the tile red. Donghyuck sobs as he drops the scissors, watching as they fall to the floor with a loud clang. The pain is almost unbearable and it leaves Donghyuck frozen on the floor for a few moments. 

Once he gathers himself a bit, he turns to Mark and thrusts his wrist forward, lining it up to press against Mark’s lips, “C’mon Mark, wake up and drink.”

The smell of blood alone must have been enough to wake Mark up, just enough to be sort of coherent. Donghyuck hisses as Mark weakly unhinges his jaw, wasting no time in biting down into the cut. 

The pain is piercing, amplified by the original pain of the cut, and it makes Donghyuck sob. He shuffles closer to his boyfriend, fat tears running down his face as he brings his other hand up to stroke at Mark’s hair, “T-That’s it baby, drink up.”

Mark brings both his hands up to grip harshly at Donghyuck’s arm, drinking needily from the wound, and groans at the taste. The venom has started to set in, working as an anesthetic for the pain, leaving it a pleasant tingly feeling. 

Donghyuck has never gotten used to the feeling of being fed from. Despite being in a relationship with a literal vampire, Mark has never fed from Donghyuck. In fact, Mark had made it a rule that he wouldn’t feed from Donghyuck from the moment Donghyuck had found out what he was. It was saved for emergencies only, if that. The feeling was foreign. 

It didn’t hurt, not after the initial bite. The venom flowing through his veins did a good job at taking away the pain. The feeling was still there. He could feel Mark pull the blood from his body, he could feel his life source leaving his body. It was a weird feeling, and Donghyuck wasn’t entirely sure if he liked the feeling. 

Still, he was content with letting Mark take as much as he needed. Mark was still drinking greedily, grip getting tighter by the minute. Donghyuck gulped, “Uh, Mark? Can you loosen up a bit?”

Mark didn’t respond, in fact he seemed to curl over Donghyuck’s arm even more, shoving his shoulder under Donghyuck’s chin. The hold on his arm seemed to get impossibly tighter, making Donghyuck cry out, “Seriously Mark, chill with the grip.”

The statement fell on deaf ears once again and Donghyuck sighed, figuring he’d deal with the inevitable bruising. Mark seemed to be getting a bit better. He was rather pale to begin with, and he didn’t blush anymore, but it seemed like he was becoming a bit less pale the more he drank. His veins that were visible before started disappearing. 

However, after a while Donghyuck started feeling rather uncomfortable. He frowned and tapped Mark’s shoulder, “Okay, hey I think that’s enough. You can have more when Ten gets here.”

He got a growl as a response. Donghyuck froze. Mark had never growled at him in his entire life. Mark wouldn’t growl at him. Mark was a sweetheart, he opened the door for Donghyuck whenever they went somewhere. He keeps the little strawberry candies he dislikes stocked in a mason jar on his desk just because Donghyuck loves them so much. He lets Donghyuck watch One Piece while he’s studying, even if Luffy’s constant screaming is really distracting. Mark does not growl at him. 

The feeling that something’s about to go wrong makes its way back to Donghyuck, climbing up his veins and sitting heavy in his gut. He can feel himself starting to panic and pushes at Mark’s shoulder, “Okay, that’s enough.”

Mark growls again and pushes him up against the wall behind them. A strong hand climbs up and makes itself at home around his throat, clasping down hard to hold him in place. Donghyuck can feel his flight or fight kick in, and he knows somethings wrong. His arm is starting to hurt again and he can’t help but feel lightheaded from the blood loss. 

“Get off Mark.”

Mark glares at him, eyes a vibrant scarlet. Donghyuck has never seen them so bright and it scares him to his very core. 

He can’t help but let that thought sink in. 

Donghyuck is scared. 

He’s scared of Mark. 

The realization brings a whole new round of heart wrenching sobs. His arm is beginning to burn and he slaps at Mark’s shoulder as hard as he can, “Get off! Mark it hurts! Stop!”

The grip on his neck tightens and it cuts off a good portion of his air supply. Donghyuck gasps, trying to draw in air, chest beginning to hurt from the lack of oxygen. He punches harder at Mark and tries to wedge a leg between them. He cries out, “Stop! Y-You’re hurting me!”

His vision begins going blurry, and it's when he’s on the verge of passing out himself that he feels Mark’s fangs pull out roughly from his arm. The hand around his neck disappears, leaving behind a phantom feeling of tightness. Donghyuck peers blearily, watching as Mark is sent crashing into the cabinet. He just barely misses banging his head off corner, reeling back and falling to the ground. Donghyuck eyes follow him as it happens and he gets a small glimpse of Mark looking at him incredulously before there's a new face popping up in front of him. 

“Hey, are you with me?” The person asks. 

Donghyuck blinks at him, raking in his looks. The stranger is thin, with a face as pretty as Taeyong’s. His locks the color of honey fall into his eyes and his mouth is downturned in a frown. Donghyuck catches the glint of light on the man’s sharpened canines. 

“Donghyuck?”

Donghyuck nods, “I’m okay.”

The man breathes out in relief and nods. He takes off a bandana he had wrapped around his thigh and ties it tightly on Donghyuck’s arm to act as a tourniquet. Then, he opens the small cooler sitting next to him and pulls out a full blood bag. He tosses it at Mark with a disapproving look, “I’m sure you already got enough, but drink up anyway, asshole.”

Donghyuck sighs, still feeling rather lightheaded. He lets himself fall asleep now that he knows Mark’s okay, the exhaustion finally overtaking him. 

───────────────── 

Donghyuck wakes up to a voice that sounds oddly like Taeyong. He feels warm all over and struggles to open his eyes. It takes effort to pry them open, but once he does he’s met with a very angry looking Taeyong.

“Hi Yong,” Donghyuck croaks. 

“What the hell were you thinking? I said keep him awake, not cut yourself open and sacrafice yourself to him.”

Donghyuck winces, “I love you too.”

“Hyuck! You’re awake!” Mark shouts, pushing Taeyong out of the way. 

Donghyuck smiles softly, “You're okay.”

“Don’t you ever do something like that again, Lee Donghyuck,” Mark scolds, “I-I almost killed you.”

“But you didn’t,” Donghyuck says, “So don’t worry about it. I’d do it a hundred times more if I had to.”

Mark frowns and leans down. Their lips meet in a long kiss and Mark brings up a gentle hand to hesitantly pet at Donghyuck’s hair. He’s frowning when they pull away, “I love you, and I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Donghyuck whispers, “and I love you too. More than anything.”

“This is cute and all, but we still have to talk to Donghyuck,” Taeyong interrupts, handing the younger a bottle of orange juice and some cookies.

Donghyuck frowns, but listens as Taeyong starts in on his lecture about how irresponsible his actions were and _what would happen if Ten didn’t come in time._ He zones out halfway through, his attention being pulled to Mark. He looks healthier now, completely healed. He’s got a nice glow to him now and if Donghyuck didn’t know better he would’ve never thought the elder had endured two stake wounds just hours earlier. 

He glances down at his arm. The only remainder of the incident was a bruise the size of a hand print wrapped around his arm. The bite mark is gone, as is the giant cut. He makes a mental note to ask Mark how that happened later.

He knows it’ll take a while for Mark to forgive himself, and Donghyuck isn’t sure if he can handle seeing Mark’s eyes change color again, but he knows that with time their mental injuries. They’ll be okay. 

Donghyuck grins and pulls Mark closer, turning back into Taeyong’s lecture with a hum.


End file.
